Justice culture

I refer to Guy Thomas’s letter entitled ‘Justice culture’ in the October issue. In a caring society, an analysis of whose interest should be weighted highest in an accident would surely give the answer the victim. That interest, however, reflects the victim’s suffering and future needs and that is independent of cause or blame. Support for victims is one thing; penalties for those that are adjudged to act with irresponsible carelessness is a different thing. Similarly, an analysis of litigation would surely show it to be extremely inefficient in monetary terms, with large overheads and an element of gambling.

I think our profession would become even more relevant if we embraced top-down analysis with the same enthusiasm we embrace mathematical analysis. I sense that used to be the case, but I don’t mean that to sound like ‘ah, the good old days’.